Outsourced Logistics

Linde Material Handling will be attending the final round of ShD’s (Storage Handling Distribution) regional shows. The last of this year’s regional ShD shows, will be staged at the Westpoint Centre in Exeter on 12 November. Linde will be showcasing products and services from its broad range of leading materials handling equipment and solutions. With this show, Linde will also be focusing attention on its strong presence in the South West region through the local National Network company Linde Severnside.

“We are all very pleased to be such an integral part of this event,” said Gerry Jones, sales director at Linde Severnside. “We are looking forward to providing businesses here in the South West with exclusive and informative access to our products and services. We’ll be able to demonstrate, first-hand, the total cost savings of our products and the overall potential for economic, as well as environmental savings, which are so much a part of the entire Linde range.”

Linde will be featuring two trucks on full display at the West Point Centre, a Linde T 20 SP stand-on pallet truck and an H 14 T, LPG powered, hydrostatic counterbalance truck. In both exhibits, visitors will be able to see and experience the comfortable ergonomic design styles, as well as compare the fuel and tyre efficiencies in the H 14 T, which really distinguish Linde as a UK market leader.

In addition to showcasing these two innovative products, representatives from Linde Severnside will be on hand to talk about the comprehensive range of support and maintenance services that can be provided quickly and efficiently to South Western businesses to ensure they reap the maximum benefit from their investment. Visitors can also find out about the range of value-added services available directly from Linde.

“Our products are increasingly sought after because of their substantial ability to reduce operating costs” states David Bowen, Linde’s sales and product training manager. Backed up by recently published data from Transport+Opslag, which shows that Linde’s fuel efficiency, widely attributed to design innovation, tyre performance and the unique hydrostatic transmission, far exceeds that of its competitors.

Says Bowen, “Linde is unmatched right now and we’re encouraging everyone to stop by our stand and put us to the test. Our goal is to thoroughly discuss with you the financial savings and marked environmental fuel efficiencies we can offer. When you look at the total cost of ownership, Linde is clearly the best.”

In a series of three regional shows held across the UK. Linde has participated in all locations with regional representatives on-hand. This has allowed local businesses to meet with Linde representatives directly.

Following a recent visit to Mumbai, India, PD Ports announces that it has signed an agreement with Faredeal Shipping Agencies Pvt Ltd. to act as their agents in the crucial Indian shipping market. PD Ports expects this agreement to provide further opportunities and options to Indian shippers for increased European trade. Further to the agreement, PD Ports, which is a port owner and operator based in the North East of England, has also appointed Faredeal Shipping Agencies Pvt Ltd to act on its behalf in order to raise the profile of PD Ports throughout the Indian shipping market.

The signing of this agreement took place during PD Ports’ recent launch party in Mumbai, organised by the newly appointed Indian agents. The event, which attracted over 250 guests including shipping lines, freight forwarders, NVOCC’s and press, featured a presentation by Graham Wall, group commercial director for PD Ports. Graham highlighted many of PD Port’s current developments, showing the potential benefits utilising the Northern Gateway Container Terminal (NGCT) for UK imports coming from the Indian shipping market. The NGCT is expected to open in 2011.

After the NGCT presentation, PD Ports signed and exchanged the new agreement with representatives from Faredeal Shipping Agencies Pvt Ltd. Graham Wall commented: “The launch event was a huge success and we received tremendous interest in our future plans including the Northern Gateway project. India is one of the global leaders in the shipping industry and is a key player in the world economy. Approximately, 95 per cent of the country’s trade by volume, that’s 70 per cent in terms of value, is moved by sea. It is that traffic from India that is destined for the retailers and consumers of the northern UK that we want to attract at Teesport.”

In December 2007 PD Ports first began initiatives to increase the company’s presence and visibility in the Far East as part of a broad awareness campaign for the Northern Gateway Container Terminal (NGCT). The campaign began in 2007 with a visit to Singapore and Malaysia by key port representatives. The campaign has continued successfully since then, with strategic visits in 2008 to Thailand, China and Vietnam. The aim of these visits has been to further establish PD Ports’ plans to attract deep sea vessels to call directly to the company’s northern UK port of Teesport. The UK Government gave approval for the NGCT plans in April of this year.

In his NGCT presentation in India, Graham Wall highlighted key benefits of the development projects at Teesport, “The plans being put in place by PD Ports will help to create over 5,500 new jobs in the northern UK. Additionally, we’ll be creating a terminal capable of handling 1.5 million teu (twenty foot equivalent unit) of containers per annum when fully built.”

PD Ports week-long tour of the region began in Dubai where port representatives visited several major shipping lines and liner agents. This was followed by local port tours and networking meetings across India. India is considered to be the world’s fastest growing country, as both its economy and population are expanding rapidly. The Population Reference Bureau (PRB) predicts that by 2050 India will have grown from its current population of 1.08bn to more than 1.63bn people, effectively overtaking China, which is forecast to reach 1.44bn from the current 1.3bn. In contrast, the PRB estimates that Britain is expected to grow only slightly, to 65m, from 59.5m.

On 8 October, Glasgow played host to a major Scottish business development seminar sponsored by PD Ports, operator of the 3rd largest port (Teesport) in the United Kingdom. The seminar, which featured a presentation by top PD Ports’ executives and industry elite, focused on the many present and future opportunities that PD Ports are realising in Scotland.

The seminar attracted more than 75 interested parties and representatives from the various shipping lines, freight forwarders, rail freight operators, 3 & 4 PL’s, members of the United Kingdom Warehousing Association (UKWA), Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT), the Glasgow Freight Club, and the British International Freight Association (BIFA). The seminar opened with a discussion examining PD Ports’ role as a key economic driver within the North of the UK.

Attendees gained first-hand knowledge of the new ways in which PD Ports’ Teesport facility can improve the logistics efficiencies of Northern-based companies. In a BBC Radio Scotland interview, recorded just before the seminar, Kim Catterick, Business Development Manager for PD Ports, noted the economic and logistical significances associated with northern ports, “Major container lines are taking notice of the economic and environmental advantages of regional hubs. This now means that more and more shippers are favouring strategic locations in the North East for both feeder and direct calls.”

Plans for PD Ports’ Northern Gateway Container Terminal (NGCT), with details regarding the £330 million build programme, set to begin in 2009, were also presented. Graham Wall, Commercial Director for PD Ports, highlighted the advantages of the NGCT for Scotland as the project progresses, “The NGCT will be the only location in the North of the UK capable of handling larger container vessels from Europe, India and the Far East. Because of the location and supporting infrastructure, the NGCT has the potential, through a reduction in road miles and improving vehicle productivity, to save shippers up to 40% of costs on the movement of their cargo in and out of the North of the UK. Because of the savings in road miles and the overall advantage to shippers of being able to call closer to their final destinations in the north, Teesport and the NGCT are proving successful at securing a range of international customers.”

In addition to the presenters from PD Ports, David Cross and Paul Phillips of EWS addressed the audience about their company’s commitment to the development of Teesport. They spoke about the addition of pocket wagons to the rail service, which will allow the movement of high cube containers on the route. According to Graham Wall, “By a better use of rail for freight in the North East of England, as well as into key areas within Scotland, the Northern Gateway is expected to save the UK over £60 million in logistics costs by reducing both the economic and environmental costs associated with road miles.”

Statistics show that northbound cargo is expected to increase in volume by 400% over the next 12-years. To keep up with this north-bound trend, PD Ports is seeking to further develop relationships within the Scottish shipping and retail sectors. Concluded Graham Wall, “Scotland and Teesport are linked by logistical advantages, which can help the entire North of the UK improve our entire economic as well as environmental situation. A gateway to growth will be created with the NGCT and new synergies between Scotland and Teesport – let the borders unite.”